Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the role of Darwin Plus in supporting climate resilience and reducing future environmental risks in the UK Overseas Territories.
Answered by
Mary Creagh
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s Darwin Plus programme has invested more than £64 million across nearly 400 environmental projects of benefit to the UK Overseas Territories since 2012. These include projects to increase the Territories’ resilience by responding to, mitigating and adapting to climate change and its effects on the natural environment and local communities.
An independent evaluation in 2022 found that Darwin Plus projects have reduced key threats to the Territories’ natural environments, including climate change. An impact analysis of Darwin Plus projects in 2025 has since estimated that Darwin Plus projects have:
- Improved the climate and disaster resilience of almost 10,000 people since 2022 alone; and
- Brought over 46 million hectares of land and sea under ecological management since 2013.
Project applicants for Darwin Plus Local Round 6, which closed on 29 December, will be kept informed of developments. Updates on further future funding rounds will be published on the Darwin Plus website in due course.